Clubs New Zealand Template Employment Agreements - Updated

24 April 2019

In light of the recent and incoming employment law changes we have had the Clubs New Zealand template employment agreements reviewed and updated where required.

The updated Clubs New Zealand Individual Employment Agreement Template and the Clubs Zealand Casual Employment Agreement Template have been loaded in the Clubs New Zealand resource room for members to access.

Whats Changed;

Individual (Full and Part Time) Employment Agreement

Domestic Violence Leave We have introduced an additional clause (clause 12) to inform the employee of their entitlements in relation to Domestic Violence Leave. This does not have to be added into existing employment agreements, Domestic Violence leave is law and cannot be contracted out of irrespective of it being in the employment agreement or not.

Trial / Probationary Periods This agreement includes a trial period for new employees at Clause 5 of Schedule A. We have added wording in yellow highlight at the top of this clause to indicate to Clubs that this Trial period clause can only be used if their Club has less than 20 employees. We have also included an optional/alternative clause that can be used instead – the Probationary Period clause. Unlike trial periods, probationary period clauses require performance management processes to be carried out in the usual way, and warnings to be given to the employee, prior to any dismissal taking place.

Rest and Meal Breaks This is addressed at Clause 7 of Schedule A. The clause already referred to the employee being provided with meal and breaks “in accordance with relevant law in force from time to time”. We have however amended the bullet points listed in Clause 7.1 to reflect the changes that come into force on 6 May 2019 (i.e. a Club would not meet the requirements under the Act to be able to be exempt from the requirement to provide rest and meal breaks).

Casual Employment Agreement

Domestic Violence Leave The only change we have made to this agreement, is the introduction of an additional clause (clause 12) to inform the employee of their entitlements in relation to Domestic Violence Leave. Similar to sick leave and bereavement leave, a casual employee is unlikely to become entitled to this form of leave and this is set out in clause 12.1. We have however also set out further information in relation to the entitlements (clauses 12.2-12.5) in the event that a casual employee did work frequently enough to reach the entitlement thresholds.

Rest and Meal Breaks In relation to rest and meal breaks, this agreement simply stated “Meals and breaks will be provided in accordance with relevant law”. We do not consider it necessary to amend this further within the casual agreement.

Trial / Probationary Periods This agreement does not include a trial or probationary period due to the casual nature of the employment.

As always Clubs New Zealand provides these templates to members, however, they are templates and are not ready in their current form to be presented to an employee. Clubs must ensure they review the template in full and make the changes required before presenting the agreement to a prospective employee. We also strongly recommend that clubs seek independent legal advice before using the contracts.

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